[rcjm2070]

I'm running vista and want to format my hard drive and put on xp. I boot up from the xp cd and try to format and install, but get a message.
setup did not find any hard drive installed in your computer.
any thoughts

 

[JMPC]

You may need to load a driver if your motherboard uses a SATA drive/controller.

You can also take a look in the BIOS and see what SATA mode is set to. Setting it to IDE or something similar will usually bypass this issue.

 

[LMiller7]

Installing XP on newer hardware can be problematic, particularly if this is a laptop. In addition to the issues with SATA, which XP does not natively support, you need to investigate whether drivers are available for all devices. Depending on the age of the computer such drivers may or may not be available. You may not have a problem but it is not a good idea to assume this.

 

[altjx]

I think I've had this problem before on company workstations as well. Try looking in the BIOS for an ACHI setting relating to the hard drive. Can't remember off the top of my head. If you find it, maybe try changing it to the next option. I think that fixed my problem... Worth a shot anyway.